Social Sharing

Social shares are an important aspect of your marketing efforts that should be just as optimized and crafted in the same way you would create content for your website or blog. A big part of making social sharing easy is having the social share buttons readily available on your website, blog or even a Facebook Shop. You want to make sure they do a great job of making your business look good on social media channels.

Let’s take a look at how you customize your shares for Twitter. Once a user chooses to share content, in our case let’s share they would like to share a product, you can make this customizable by adding in the product number and don’t forget to add your Twitter handle onto the post. Customizable sharing lets you portray your brand and product in the way that you would like to represent your company, while providing users with useful information.

If you currently have a Facebook store you might be using an app that has some social shares such as Facebook, Twitter, and Pinterest built in. If your primary store is located on your website you can easily add social share buttons onto your site and customize them for your products. You can easily add share buttons for Twitter, LinkedIn, Google+, Pinterest, and Facebook to your website.

Once you have customized your social share buttons you can then track their impact using Google Analytics in their social plugins sections. This will help you keep an eye how many users are sharing and which social platform they are using to share information about your products, website, or blog. Tracking enables you to determine which channels are more effective for your business.

Customizing your social share buttons allows you to create a consistent image and message throughout all your social media channels. It also encourages user engagement beyond just searching for products and reading content. It allows them a social shopping aspect and gets them more involved with your company.

As we mentioned in a previous article, when fans are sharing your product information you are gaining more exposure for your brand. This is key in the digital marketing world and customizing as much content as possible will assist you with your brand awareness as you create a consistent message in the digital scene. Social buttons make it easier than ever for fans to share content, make sure you are fully utilizing this method of giving customers awareness of your brand.

Are you already using social share buttons with your products or your content? Make sure they are fully optimized for your business and let us know what works for you!

What is the best possible way for you to reach your fans inside of Facebook with your Facebook Shop? Simple, with a Facebook post that shows up in their news feed! According to Facebook expert, Jay Baer, 48% of users check their Facebook news feed more than once a day. That means that your fans live in their news feed. They’re typically not checking your business/fan page on a daily basis to see what you’ve posted; they’re waiting for your updates to show up in their NEWS FEED. So in order to create a presence with your fan base and their friends you need to promote your products. This is as simple as one click for ShopTab users.

Our “Promote” button is located within each product listing in ShopTab’s admin and is the best promotional tool available to you. With one click on the “Promote” link you can enter the promotional text you want to appear with the product in your post. Snap! Your post goes live on your Facebook business/fan page and into your fan’s news feed – all in one simple step.

It is important to remember that we don’t want to come off selling too hard – we want to create conversation and engagement. Below are some ideas on great ways to create creative engagement around your product posts from our Social Commerce Strategy document:

Introduce products on Facebook first, offer a special deal for these early users. Create urgency by defining a short time period for the offer.

Your Facebook store is an opportunity to present something different than what is on your website. Leverage this concept in your pricing, packaging and offers.

Ask a question regarding which product your fans might like best or colors they prefer.

Create a category called “Best Sellers” or “Most Popular” and feature that category on your first store page.

You don’t have to put all of your products into your Facebook shop. If you have a fully functioning website then use this as an opportunity to promote “on sale” items by creating a special category for your store or even have it as the only category.

Promote a specific product, sale item or packaged offering in the header graphic on every page. This graphic may be linked to the website page that supports this promotion.

Create easy navigation to find your products. Use the “Categories” and “Subcategories” functions to make it easy for your users

Many stores have provided free shipping as an option only for Facebook fan purchases with a special code or link to a special web checkout page.

We will walk you through the new Promote feature with step-by-step in the images below.

Step 1: Click the Promote button for the product you would like to post in your newsfeed.

Step 2: Type in the text you want to appear with your post. Then click the Send Promotion button.

*Please note the first time you use the Promote feature Facebook may ask for permission to post on your behalf. You will want to click Allow. Also be sure you are logged into your Facebook account that is the admin for your business/fan page you want to post to. If you are an admin for more than one page it will ask you which page you want to post to within the dialog box.

Step 3: You will see a notice in your ShopTab admin that your message was posted.

Step 4: Your post will appear in your fans newsfeed.

Step 5: The post will appear in your business/fan page newsfeed as well.

It’s as easy as that! Now you can post away, but remember don’t spam your fans and always keep the conversation going. People like to buy from businesses that are personable and engaging not “salesly” and pushy.

Here at ShopTab we believe it is essential for the success of your social storefront to share your products and services with fans and customers. The fastest way to do so is to use the “Get Advice from Friends” feature located in the Facebook store. This feature is our equivalent of a Facebook Share which will post the product in your fans newsfeed. Once there they can share and interact with the product posting even through their mobile devices.

We have put together a quick slideshow that walks you through the “Get Advice from Friends” capabilities as well as how to place the share on your business/fan page. Please note that as in all ShopTab features this is fully translatable in your ShopTab admin. Log in to your ShopTab admin and click on the Settings tab, then Translate, there you will be able to update your text.

This week we’d like to talk about other Facebook applications. Gasp! We know, here at ShopTab we are partial to our Facebook store applicationbut that likely doesn’t give you the full picture of how to help your Facebook page and our store application with other app’s. There are 1,000’s of Facebook applications hitting the market monthly but what we’re more focused on are the ones that can help improve your audience engagement, and your revenue on your fan page.

Now these are just a few of our favorites and not every application may be right for your business, so please take that into consideration before you implement them into your social marketing plan.

Instagram:

We’ve talked in the past about the use of imageryin your Facebook page and other social channels. What better way to place your imagery inside your Facebook page so your fans can access it in one location.

The Instagram app will synch with your Instagram account and allow users to view photos of your products, events, promotions, etc. all the while allowing them to engage in a new conversation around your business.

You can use the Instagram app for Facebook, or take a look at Statigram for your business/fan page.

Pinterest:

As one of the largest emerging social media platforms for 2012, Pinterest allows its users to showcase what’s best about their business with the use of Pinboards. People are going “pin” crazy! In a recent report from Jay Baer, Pinterest is heavily skewed to women, 70% in fact. No surprise there for those that use Pinterest. With that in mind Pinterest is an application that works best for businesses geared towards women wear and accessories. If this applies to your business then this Facebook application would be a great addition to your content and engagement.

Foursquare:

This application might be a stretch for a few of you if you are solely an online storefront. But if your social shopping site is an extension of a Brick and Mortar store then this app might be for you. Foursquare allows its users to “check in” to locations to gain access to coupons and daily deals. The Foursquare Facebook application lets users see all Foursquare “check in’s” and deals from your Facebook page.

Another new feature that Foursquare has implemented is its integration with Instagram. If a customer takes a picture of your products in your store, they can tag their location. When an Instagram user is browsing photos and comes across the picture of the product they can use Foursquare to save the location in their phone. To learn more about this you can read more on the Foursquare blog site.

WuFoo:

WuFoois the Jack of all trades Facebook application. It can be used for newsletter sign ups, support requests, product requests, surveys, and the list can go on. What we like WuFoo best for is a sweepstakes. Implementing a sweepstakes on your Facebook page is a fantastic way to boost fan engagement and reach new customers.

Marcela De Vivo does a great job overviewing the steps that need to be taken before beginning a social sweepstake.

Take a look at these app’s and more in Facebook’s new App Center to see what works best in your marketing mix. If you have any suggestions or success stories with Facebook app’s aiding in your social sharing please let us know!

So you’ve got your company, your brand or non-profit group on a social platform now what do you do? Well for starters you have to do something and that means you need to create content for your page. Not only will this make your fan page more exciting but it will ultimately grow your audience when people like or share your posts. You are on a social platform so that now means you have to be social!

However, this doesn’t mean you should bombard your page with content that doesn’t have any thought behind it. You want, no scratch that, you need to devise a plan for your content. Sure you can trail blaze a path without a plan but in the end how are you going to know what worked, and what didn’t work. Of course, once you have the plan in place you’ll want the secret formula for Facebook posting. Well we can’t give you a secret formula because there isn’t one. However, having something interesting to say about your industry, market, organization, product or situation is a good start.

First off, let’s talk a minute about how often and when you should post on Facebook. The golden rule is you want to post great content but you also don’t want to overwhelm your fan’s news feeds. This can be the fastest way to get them to unlike you. The best start would be to post on a daily or every other day basis. It’s putting content on your site without being overwhelming. According to Social Times the best time of day to post is noon. You can also make the decision if you want your business to post Monday through Friday or continue on through the weekend. Saturday is one of the highest days for social activity on Facebook as stated by Social Times.

Now onto the type of content you want to be posting. A picture is worth a 1,000 words so it’s no surprise that images are the top content boosters. Facebook built the timeline design to optimize for images and videos. That doesn’t mean you have to post imagery at all times, it just means you should figure out a unique way to incorporate pictures onto your page. A clever way to increase content and use imagery would be to add milestones to your Facebook timeline weekly or monthly. It provides the user with new information about you and gives a photo view into the world of the people behind the business. You can also encourage your fans to share photos on your page that relate to your niche. Turn it into a contest, and the best picture will win a prize of some sort.

Another content generator you can utilize is providing some engagement activity that provides rewards for your fans. Since they took the effort to like your site and actually participate on your page why not give them something in return? Social Media Today says that 43% of users become fans because they would like to receive discounts. Well let’s give them what they want! You can decide to have a “Hump Day Steal” which gives your fans a discount code for their checkout in your Facebook Store. This activity can spur significant social sharing and awareness.

These are just a few tips to help you build content on your page. There are several other creative and unique ideas that will help your grow your page and create brand advocates in our Social Commerce Strategy document. There aren’t any true secrets to great content, just hard work, interesting perspectives and a willingness to communicate with others. The secret is your willingness to take chances and provide a compelling reason for people to want to engage with to you.